Xtra
by WriterKO
Summary: A young man is charged with forming a team of newly gifted super humans in order to stop the chaos created from the emergence of comic book heroes and villains given life, and other new supers who choose to use their powers for evil.
1. Chapter 1

+Xtra

By WriterKO

Chapter 1

Dreams are awesome. Superheroes are awesome. Dreams about superheroes, those are pretty much the best things since double-stuffed Oreos. I was rushing through the city with a scarf around my face and a black pea coat unbuttoned. My right hand was in the shape of a gun like how I made it back when I used to play cops and robbers when I was a kid. I heard a girl's voice hum from a Bluetooth earpiece and say, "He went down 5th …then right …right again." I followed the voice's instructions and turned right twice.

"He went down an alley on your left." I rushed to the corner of an alleyway and held my right hand as if it was an actual gun. "You ready?" the girl said from the earpiece.

I could feel myself smile from beneath my scarf. "Don't you know who you're talking to, sweetheart?" I turned into the alley and pointed my fingers towards the back of a silhouetted man who was clawing at a brick wall just twenty-five feet considers what your power is."

"Like your one to talk." The man turned and scrambled into a ball against the bricks behind him. "Just tell The Professor to make sure that there's room in the fish tank." I walked up to the cowering man and pointed my 'handgun' at the center of a small yellow 'X' just above his heart. "Bang."

_Bang! Bang! Bang! _"Oi, Jay! Wake up, man, we got lecture in fifteen." I was on my back looking up at the ceiling fan of my flat mate bedroom. "Dude, you can't skip again today, you told me you were gonna give me a ride."

I mumbled into my pillow, "Dude, it's not even locked."

My roommate, Calvin, burst into my room and took a moment to admire my wall of rare comics. He made a quick bowing gesture to the wall and turned back to me, "Do you even know what time it is?"

I picked up my cell phone from my nightstand and saw a flashing alarm clock on the screen. It was 9:57. "Oh shit." I was dressed, had brushed teeth, and clean-shaven by 9:59 and in my car by 10:01. After some fancy maneuvers and only three middle fingers by angry drivers, I parked my car and booked it to the computer lab with Calvin.

"See, we got here just in time, dude," I said as I collapsed into one of the chairs in front of a computer.

"Yeah," Calvin said, "but I don't consider collapsing into a chair half covered in sweat a success." He pulled out two flash drives from his pocket and slapped them into the computer. His fingers made an odd rhythmic clicking song on the keyboard. "Jeez, man, one day you're seriously gonna get me kicked outta college."

"You're kidding, right?" I rolled my eyes and leaned back in my chair far enough for me to see the ceiling tiles. "You know, when you get sweaty, it kinda rolls onto the ends of your curls and actually look like beads."

"Why are we friends?"

Calvin slid the keyboard towards me and I started making a few quick clicks to start our game, _Ghost_. We designed this game to be a simple single-person shooter where the player is an assassin meant to track and put down criminals. "The lag between the click and the bullet is still killing me, Cal. Plus it's trailing to the right a little bit."

"Noted. You know, I just realized that you're having your Middle-Eastern friend make a game about guns and bombs and stuff."

"I think the professor will appreciate that irony. And you're only half Middle-Eastern. Besides, your family's been here since before there was color TV. Pretty sure they got here illegally, but that doesn't matter anymore."

"…How did you ever get accepted here, man?"

"Because I blew away the admission committee with my amazing bull-shitting powers on the essay." I pulled out a volume of _Ms. Marvel_ from my backpack and scanned the pages. "That's what happens when you try to mess with an English major."

"What happens when you mess with a Programming major?"

"Ultron."

Calvin stared at the screen for a bit and said, "You gonna go to the store today?"

"I dunno… I think she's starting to notice me."

"I thought that was the point."

"Naw, man. The point was for me to scope her out and then make my move with some clever conversation starter and then we go live happily ever after."

"Mazel tov, but that hasn't worked really worked for you and it's been what, two years?"

I started to make out shapes form the dots on the ceiling tiles. "…Alright, I'll go today." I checked some of the coding on the computer screen, but my vision blurred slightly and I couldn't tell the difference between what was on the screen and the weird squiggles on the ceiling. "But after I nap. Didn't get all my beauty sleep, and she's worth looking good for. You got this?" I trotted out of the computer lab after Cal waved me off.

I like naps. They're a quick recharge for me that also have the added benefits of killing time and incredibly wacked out dreams. But when my dreams have someone telling me weird stuff about the world ending and chaos awakening, it's kinda not awesome.

I was in a small office with a dark wood desk and walls made of glass. There was a young woman sitting behind the desk wearing a large pair of glasses and had her brown hair in a ponytail. She was wearing a business suit, but she looked as if she couldn't have been that much older than me. I took my time to walk around the office and poked at the Newton's cradle that was on the edge of the desk (actually, it was the only thing on the desk). I looked at the woman whose eyes were following me behind her glasses. "So… are you gonna ask me about my childhood or something?"

She smiled. "I was waiting for you to take a seat."

I looked around the glass office again and saw no empty chairs. I tried to make one by controlling the dream, the way I'm able to sometimes when I'm aware that I'm in a dream, but nothing happened. "You wanna help me out here, love? Unless you want me on your desk, but I don't really wanna mess up what you got going there."

"Oh, I'm so sorry." She scrambled to stand up form behind her desk for a few moments and she snapped her fingers. My favorite wooden chair from my bedroom appeared in a puff of grey smoke.

"Impressive," I said, examining the chair. "You even got the scratches from when I was throwing my knife around."

"Well I just picked it out of your subconscious. It's kinda my thing," she said with a shrug.

I nodded and took a seat. I watched the Newton's cradle for a bit until I finally snapped, "So what's supposed to be happening here? Cause based on past dream experience, we should either be fighting a super giant monster thing or making out… so…"

"Oh, right." She cleared her throat, but I thought I caught her cheeks turn a hint of red. "My name is Alice Carroll, and I'm here to recruit you."

I chewed the inside of my cheek for a second while I thought about things. Nobody ever told me their name in a dream. "This is weird. Okay, so do you want my résumé or something?"

"Oh, it's not like that." Alice propped her glasses onto her forehead. "Something is coming, Mr. Reed. The forces of good and evil will clash in our world, and they simpy do not belong here. You and your team will need to confront these forces to keep humanity safe."

I nodded along with what Alice said, but I couldn't be more lost. I just assumed that it was part of the dream. "So how am I gonna do this exactly?"

"With your power of course."

"Excellent… what powers are we talking here? Flight? Teleportation? Invisibility?"

"That depends on you."

"Man, this dream is so vague."

"Oh, you still think that this is all in your head."

"Kinda."

Alice shook her head and snapped her fingers again. Dozens of holographic screens appeared behind her. My eyes widened as I saw images from throughout my life playing before me. One was showing my first grade talent show where I tripped over my own shoes and ended up with a bloody nose, one showed the day that I got my college acceptance letter, and one showed me this morning when Calvin banged on my door. All of the screens were showing the memories from my own perspective. Somehow, I could feel my nose grow sore when I watched the first, elated joy towards the second, and the grogginess of the third all at the same time. "And now this dream is weird."

Alice rubbed her eyes and waved away the screens, which faded into nothingness. "Look, you clearly don't think that this is real, but you're just gonna have to trust me. I already got in touch with a couple of other people who should be on your team, so they'll approach you about it. Geez, why do the guys always have to be so stubborn?"

"No we're not." I smiled when Alice groaned.

"Just wake up already." And I did.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

When I woke up, it felt like my head had been submerged in cement and I was overly aware of the taste of my own mouth. I grabbed the tin of mints that I kept on my desk and popped three in, crunching them while I rifled through my closet. I flipped through my shirts and found that I really should have taken the time to iron them. Eventually, I managed to find a shirt that Cal was kind enough to have ironed for me (it was the only one that he has ever approved of; something about it having neither a completely horrendous pattern or superhero icon) and slipped it on.

I checked myself out in the mirror in the bathroom that was in the hallway outside my room. My dark hair was a little more wild than normal; it had been a while since I had gotten it cut, so the ends in the back had started to reach my neck and curl. I flicked an eye booger out of the crevice of my left eye and stared at them for a second. My eyes were hazel, but only in the right light, such as the bright fluorescents that I had put in the bathroom for the express purpose of proving to social media that, yes, my eyes were hazel. I got lucky with my genes and got a natural metabolism that made me slim without too much effort, but I was also a little short at 5 foot 9. I slapped on my hiking boots that gave me an extra inch and walked to The Vault.

The thing about comic book stores is that, despite what you may have seen on television, not all of them are awesome. Some of them are little hole-in-the-wall places at a mall that barely have any stock, others have employees that don't know anything about comics other than the fact that there are now movies based on them, and some are nothing more than glorified caves. The Vault was different though. The Vault was like Asgard with comics and foosball. It had access to almost every comic published in America (the owner had some serious connections). Even the stuff they had in stock was so glorious that the first time I saw what was held some of the plastic sleeves, I cried. There was a popcorn machine, a reading area with an atmosphere that could put all coffee shops to shame, and even celebrity clientele on occasion. But the real draw was Sam.

Samantha started working at the shop about a year after I first came in, and because I was friends with Duke, the manager of The Vault and nicknamed The Captain (why he didn't take on the nickname _The Duke_ is beyond me), he hooked me up with Sam's work schedule.

Sam was the hot nerd girl who everyone says does not exist except for in the dreams of men. She wore shirts with hero/villain emblems emblazoned on them, had rings that were edgier than a chainsaw, and could flash a smile that made you feel like she was sharing a secret with you. Her hair was always a bright color that reminded me of Ramona Flowers from _Scott Pilgrim VS The World_.

When I walked into the shop, there were only two other people (I think they were discussing something about Pokemon or Magic or something like that) leaning over one of the plastic tables set off to the side for card games. The store was larger than one would think, the Captain once told me that it was originally two, but he won a decent chunk of cash from a lottery ticket, bought out the shop next door, and knocked down their connecting wall. The walls were all lined with framed posters of heroes, most of which were signed by their creators or actors that had portrayed them. Several bookshelves were spread out through the shop with all of the new releases for the week. The left section of the shop was dedicated to games (board, card, role-playing, etc.), the right had DVDs, and the back, was where the wall of artifacts resided. A collection of nerd memorabilia ranging from an Iron Man helmet actually used in the first film to a sword of Gryffindor. Sam stood as guardian to these wondrous treasures behind the counter, spinning a skull ring on her little finger while she scanned the pages of an open book. She loked up when the bell behind the door alerted her that a customer had walked in, when she saw me she gave a little head bob and said, "'Sup, Jay?"

I tried to give a natural smile, but it felt more like hooks were stringing up the ends of my mouth. "Hey, Sam."

She opened the door that led to the back and said, "Hey, Cap, I'm gonna take my break." She walked around the counter and yanked my arm. "You, come with me."

"Yes, ma'am." Sam pulled me out of the store and into the Starbucks just across the parking lot. She had me grab the coffee while she got us a table, which I was more than thankful for since I didn't want her to know that I hate coffee and bought hot chocolate instead. I was so engrossed in trying to figure out why Sam had dragged me here that I barely heard the barista call my name for the coffee. "So what's this all about?" I said when I sat down.

"Look, I'm just gonna say it, and I know it's gonna sound crazy, but just let me get through the whole thing, okay?"

"Um… yeah, sure… You know that's a terrible cliché, right?" I was really hoping that she was gonna say something along the lines of, 'Look, I really like you and I want us to go out and that's why I brought you to this coffee house without explanation.'

"Look, Jay, there's something we gotta talk about and it's kinda insane."

I furrowed my brow and started spinning my cocoa on the table. "You're really a billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist who's a superhero on the side?"

I could almost see Sam chewing the inside of her cheek. She gave a look somewhere between annoyed and mildly amused and I made a point to shut my mouth. "Alright, um… you know that dream you had with that chick with the specs in the glass office?"

I could hear some customers whispering loudly as the door to the coffee shop swung.

"You see that guy?"

"What's he wearing?"

"Is there a convention or something?"

Sam was starting to freak me out. It hadn't even been an hour since I had the dream and she just gave remarkable details about it. I considered whether or not I'd be able to run away from her if necessary, a question I really never thought I would have to ponder. "How do you know about that?"

"Because it was real."

I stood up. Or more accurately, I jolted up and nearly knocked my chair back onto the floor. "Well, it's been lovely having coffee with you, Sam, but I really must get home to Cal. He worries you see."

Sam grabbed my wrist and held it in a vice grip. Her hand was warm but sweaty, and despite the hostility implied in the action, I reveled in the fact that we were making physical contact. "She came to me too, Jay. She told me that you were meant to be a part of the team that's supposed to save the world from chaos or some crap." She didn't break eye contact as she said that. Her eyes were hazel, maybe one shade lighter than mine, and had a ring of green around the edge the color of grass at the end of the summer.

"Hey mister, are you a superhero?"

My nerves were firing signals left and right through my body, while I stared into Sam's eyes; whether they were good or bad, I couldn't tell. "What are you talking about, Sam? It was a dream. It couldn't have been real. Well I guess it was real in my head, but that's beside the point."

"Yes, in your head, but no, very real."

"I don't suppose you can prove that?"

A scream splintered whatever coherent thoughts I had and I looked away from Sam and towards the cash register where a man in silver, robotic armor was holding the barista's apron. "I am Stiltman and I shall take over this world! Now that Daredevil and Spiderman aren't in my way, nobody can stop me!"

I couldn't believe my eyes; standing not twenty feet from me was Stiltman. He was wearing his silver mechanical suit that had a mask that covered the upper half of his face. The legs of the suit had circular cuts along them and the top half had, what I could only describe as, an astronauts helmet without the clear visor. He looked just like the most recent rendition of himself in the latest issue of _Spiderman_. I wanted to reach and poke his suit, ask him about the balance it took to stand at twenty stories tall, and what he would compare getting punched by Spiderman to. And then he grabbed what money he could from the cash register and ran out the door.

I watched the door to the shop slap open and closed until I felt my arm being grabbed as Sam pulled me outside the shop and we started chasing down Stiltman. We were out the door when I heard someone call the police on their phone. Outside, I got further confirmation that the criminal was in fact _the _Stiltman when I saw him walking thirty feet above my head on the telescoping legs extended from his suit. "Okay, you might be on to something about the whole chaos bit and for the sake of things, let's say I believe you." I peeled my eyes away from the all too intriguing sight of Stiltman doing more harm by stopping traffic than by robbing the thriving coffee shop and looked to Sam. "So what exactly are we supposed to do about him? If memory serves, that guy is packing some serious heat and we're just a couple of really good looking nerds." That was closest to flirting I had ever done.

Sam turned, gave me a smile, and said, "I got this." She started chasing after Stiltman, but just before she turned to run, I could have sworn that I saw a green spark flash across her eyes.

I ran after Sam as soon and helped try to track down one of the weirdest Marvel villains of all time. "You do know that he's probably gonna outwalk us in a few seconds right? I mean the stride on that guy is ridiculous."

"I told you, I got this." Sam took a quick look around and then I watched her put her hands to the side of her head and extended her fingers until they were touching her. Suddenly, Stiltman's suit emitted a flurry of green sparks and he started jerking aggressively.

I kept looking back and forth from Sam to Stiltman and back again. "Um… is that you?"

"You know it."

"What's going on?!" Stiltman's left leg collapsed on itself and he began swaying. I laughed thinking that he reminded me of one of those inflatable balloon men that you'd see outside a car dealership flapping in the wind.

"What are you waiting for? Take him down. Hijacking his suit is actually a bit of a pain." I saw a bead of sweat roll down from Sam's forehead and her hands were shaking just slightly.

"I believe this is the part where I yell, 'Jenga.'" I ran up to Stiltman's only good leg and flying tackled it. The anticipation I felt waiting for the villain to hit the ground was only matched by the satisfying crash that came from his body colliding with the sidewalk. I untangled myself from his leg and brushed myself off, since that's what I had always imagined people doing after they took down a villain. I could hear the sound of police sirens in the distance getting closer. "You think the cops will be able to handle him? You know, it feels so weird to think that trained police officers wouldn't be able to take care of a man whose main weapon is a circus schtick."

Sam lowered her hands turned back towards The Vault. "They should be fine. I shut down his suit and it shouldn't be able to boot up for at least a few hours."

"Great, great… just one thing… how the hell did you do that?!" I flung my hands in the air and felt my guts spasm like a spider on a hot plate. "I mean, that was really cool and everything, but what you just did was like comic book stuff. And what about him?" I said pointing to Stiltman who was out cold. "What the hell is Wilbur-effing-Day doing here? He's fictional! Or at least he was!" I was trying my hardest to calm down, but things tend to get a little confusing when you see the hot girl from the comic book store hack an evil mechanical super suit.

"Jay, I'd be more than happy to answer your questions, but can we do it somewhere else? I really don't wanna have this conversation while cops and the media and who knows who else coming here."

I chewed the inside of my cheek for a moment and grinned at Sam. "I know just the place."


End file.
